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Battle of Planet Sutune
The Battle of Planet Sutune was the first major battle in the Star System 17 Campaign of the 1st Interstellar War. It is the first battle where major elements of both the Federation and Imperial forces in Star System 17 clashed. In the battle, the federation suffered heavy casualties, with the loss of 4 senior officers and the near complete annihilation of the federation 3rd Fleet and the Garrison Fleet, however 1/3rd of the 3rd Fleet managed to escape along with what little remained of the Sutune Garrison Fleet. The defenders put up a stronger resistence than the empire had expected losing 1/3rd of their surface invasion force, and in the space battle some federation ships even resorted to ramming, which resulted in the destruction of 2 imperial battleships and several frigates and cruisers. Evacuation of Sutune After about 2 weeks of fighting, with defeat seemingly on the horizon, General Colson and Admiral Isaac agreed to evacuate as many surviving civillian and federation forces possible off the planet. What remained of the 3rd Fleet and Sutune Garrison Fleet would provide cover while the 43rd Transport Fleet and 4th Auxiliary Flotilla would lift forces off the planet. Battle of Fortress Kion Battle of Fortress Kion also known as the Battle of LZ Olympia was a battle fought during the evacuation of Sutune. Prelude to the battle While Federation forces were evacuating its forces and civillians off, an imperial force attacked one of the LZ's known as LZ Olympia. The landing zone was being covered by the 1st Space Marines who were told of the evacuation and withdrew from the planet's capital city and was responsible for the defense of Olympia. This attack caught the Space Marines completely off guard and suffered both civillian and military casualties. With the original LZ now compromised, Colonel Jay and Commander Edan agreed to move to a new LZ, a intact fortress known as Kion, the fortress had survived multiple aerial attacks and was garrisoned by a Company of soldiers from the 22nd Infantry Division and a small platoon of tanks from the 5th Armored Company. In early morning, what remained of the forces at the original LZ had arrived in Fortress Kion. A day later however, recon forces the Space Marine's scout company (Scout Company V) found a massive imperial ground force massing nearby, it was concluded that this massive force was preparing to attack Fortress Kion, by this point 2/3rd of the civillians had been evacuated, it was decided to speed up evacuation of the civillians and to pull back all federation forces from the fortress before bombing it, however, Colonel Jay and some from the 5th Armored Company platoon disagreed with this decision, Colonel Jay and several officers from the Armored Platoon had disagreed with the decision because had they abandoned the fortress, the massive imperial force could roll on pass the fortress and compromise the other evacuation zones nearby as well as the nearby city which was still in the process of evacuation. With this conclusion Colonel Jay had come to an compromise with Commander Edan, the 1st Battalion (524 Marines and also the most combat capable) and 5 tanks from the 5th Armored Company would fall behind and defend the fortress to the last man, Captain Nicholas would take command of all remaining Space Marine units and fall back with Kilo-1 Company (22nd Infantry Division) to the nearby city. The battle of Fortress Kion begins At around noon, imperial forces began their attack with a artillery bombardment of the area, followed shortly by airstrikes, 5 imperial spacecraft were shot down during the airstrike. 30 minutes later, imperial forces began their assault with a platoon of tanks moving up with two platoon of infantry right behind the tanks. The fortress responded with anti-tank missiles and machine gun fire, 3 tanks from the 5th Armored Company set up on a small hill nearby began firing onto the formation, within 17 minutes, 7 imperial tanks were knocked out both by anti-tank missiles and cannon fire, the remaining imperial tanks made a hasty retreat afterwards with 20+ imperial soldiers dying in the process. The empire rebegan their attack 2 hours later, this time assaulting with all of their forces totalling about 50 tanks, 24 APCs and 2 entire infantry companies. The initial fighting lasted until the next morning, at about 0400 (4:00 AM) imperial forces broke through the first fortress gate, by this the 5th Armored Company had lost 3 tanks (2 from the hill and 1 other defending the first gate) and 1 immobilized (Near the second gate) and 1 other low on ammunition. The 1st Battalion from the space marines weren't in any better shape, with 232 casualties while the imperial forces lost 18 tanks, 9 APCs and about 321+ casualties. At 1000 (10:00 AM) Colonel Jay requested air support, which Commander Edan responded by re-routing the 14th Squadron with 5 SF-55 Vultures towards the fortress, the Squadron successfully destroyed 9 imperial tanks and an unknown number of imperial soldiers were killed, 1 SF-55 was shot down during the airstrike. With casualties mounting and the 5 tanks from the 5th Armored Company now destroyed there was no chance of victory, Colonel Jay retreated into the inner parts of the fortress with 50 men remaining and prepared to blow up the entire fortress with himself, what remained of the 1st Battalion and the imperial forces along with it. By 1600 hours (4:00 PM) only Colonel Jay and 1 other remained alive, Colonel Jay was badly injured and the other was low on ammunition. 30 minutes later, Colonel Jay detonated the charges around the castle and completely demolished the fortress with all imperial forces being killed both in and around the fortress. The battle ended with all federation forces dead and about 10,000+ imperial casualties leaving only a quarter of the once massive imperial ground force alive.